SACRAMENTO, Calif. — From eager Kings fans to businesses, everyone is preparing to see a packed downtown ready to light the beam.
Friday's game is expected to breathe life back into downtown Sacramento, attracting thousands of fans from all over the place and bringing an economic boost to keep businesses thriving.
Come Friday night, a sea of fans in their purple rooting for the Sacramento Kings will flood through the area.
"Overall team looks amazing this year. I'm happy to be in Sac and have such a great team to support," said Tim Mikityuk, a loyal Kings Fan.
It's the team's home opener against the Golden State Warriors.
The Downtown Sacramento Partnership says it'll be nationally televised — putting the spotlight on Sacramento.
"It's been a tremendous benefit to this region. I know year to date, we've had about 2.7 million visitors to Golden 1 Center and that's actually close to 30% higher than it was in 2019. The amount of attendance at special events and at Kings games is already higher than it was before the pandemic," said Scott Ford, who is the Economic Development Director for the Downtown Sacramento Partnership.
The Kings games are one of the main reasons businesses like Tom's Watch Bar decided to bank on a downtown location.
"We've only been open, this will be our third week. We experienced the pre-season games which was great for us. But we're super excited for the season opener. I heard a lot of hype that whole area has experienced from last season. So can't wait to do it for the first time here," said Joe Ortiz, who is the Operating Partner at Tom's Watch Bar right across from Golden 1 Center.
The sports bar will have a purple-themed beer called "Kings Knight" and is capitalizing on all the foot traffic from the games.
"The economic impacts for large scale events, multi-day events like the playoffs you know it's in the tens of millions of dollars. It's tremendous. Much like music festivals from Aftershock to Golden Sky. And sports festivals like the Iron Man California that was in town last weekend," said Ford.
The impact within DOCO and the Golden 1 Center is benefiting the heart of Sacramento and keeping the entire region thriving.
"I mean overall you can see DOCO I mean moving from Arco arena to Golden 1, it's just made downtown overall a place to be on the weekends you know. I'd just say it's an awesome place and great vibes now," said Mikityuk.
Even if you can't make it into the game tomorrow, places like Tom's Watch Bar will be showing it on their big screens.
But keep in mind that some of the businesses out here are first come first serve since it's hard to hold a table for reservations.
